Major Wimbledon row as 12 players given FINES - but champion challenges 'procedural failures'

Henry Patten is embroiled in a row with Wimbledon after he was fined more than £9,000 for swearing. The 29-year-old reigning men's doubles champion was one of 12 players fined by All England Club chiefs following the first week of the Championships - with his fine the stiffest of all.

The All England Club has published a list of fines dished out to various players with the doubles star fined for verbally abusing officials who attempted to curtail his practice session, on a practice court the day before the tournament began.

Patten, who won last year's Wimbledon title - and the Australian Open in January - alongside partner Harri Heliovaara of Finland - says he has appealed against the fine “due to inaccuracies and procedural failures in the process”.

He added: “Despite this decision being under appeal, I am disappointed that Wimbledon thought it appropriate to disclose this fine to the media without indicating my appeal which creates an unfair and inaccurate perception of the incident.

“At this stage I will merely say that I do not believe that there has been a full or proper investigation, nor has Wimbledon acted reasonably or fairly with due process.

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"I am disappointed that as the defending men’s doubles champion that I am having to address this matter at this point rather than concentrating on playing tennis.”

Patten and Heliovaara are through to the quarter-finals, earning Patten almost £44k.

Adrian Mannarino received the second-largest punishment at £4,400 for unsporting behaviour during his second-round encounter with Valentin Royer. Mannarino prevailed in that match but was subsequently knocked out by Andrey Rublev in the third round.

Russian player Elena Pridankina earned the third-heaviest sanction of £3,600, also for unsporting conduct, following her first-round doubles loss to Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei.

Four competitors were each hit with £2,900 penalties. Zizou Bergs and Halley Baptiste faced punishment for audible profanity, Varvara Gracheva for racket abuse, and Anna Kalinskaya for unsporting behaviour.

German player Jule Niemeier was penalised £1,800 for unsporting conduct during her second-round qualifying defeat.

The remaining four players each received £1,500 fines: Alex Bolt and Chloe Paquet were sanctioned for audible obscenities, Colton Smith for equipment abuse, and Luca Van Assche for unsporting conduct.